The Nambucca Banana Growers Federation Members Credit Union was started in 1970 by a group of 11 banana growers from the Nambucca Valley on the NSW mid-north coast. Now called the Bananacoast Community Credit Union, on 1 November it will merge with the Perth-based P&N Bank to become one of Australia’s largest member-owned financial institutions.
The merger is a sign of the times for customer-owned banking. The number of individual credit unions has almost halved in a decade, as smaller institutions join forces to achieve economies of scale, but the sector as a whole is growing at more than double the rates of the big four banks.
The director of strategy of the Customer-Owned Banking Association, Sally Mackenzie, says the demise of small independent operations like the BCU does not mean customers are getting a worse deal, despite the emotional historic ties to local communities: “The loss of diversity that is a byproduct of mergers is regrettable, but a stronger sector overall is good news for consumers. Mergers are a sign of a sector that is evolving, not shrinking.”
BCU members voted last week to approve the merger, which had been sold to them as a necessary response to modern challenges: shrinking margins combined with customer demand for investment in costly high-tech services and security.
